[masraum]

I don't think the gravitational attraction of the two bodies will have an appreciable effect on this situation. (assuming we are someplace with no gravity from a nearby planet or celestial body). And, yes, the 1 lb weight won't weigh anything, but it will still have the same mass in "slugs" (English unit of mass).

Either way, we are looking for the component of the angular acceleration perpendicular to the tanget to the circle that's described by the rotating mass to be 32ft/sec^2. I could definitely be wrong, it's been a long time, but I think you guys are making this much harder than it should be.